PASSION, DEDICATION, AND ADVOCACY

A native of Seattle, Janay maintains a national immigration practice. She graduated cum laude in French and Comparative Literature with dual bachelor's degrees from The University of Washington. She then joined the University of Washington School of Law in 2008. While as a UWLS scholarship recipient, Janay was actively involved in the Public Interest Law community, serving as a board member of the Public Interest Law Association, the Center for Human Rights and Justice, the first UWLS Diversity Committee, the Street Youth Legal Advocacy Project, and the International Law Society. As a law student, Janay traveled to India to learn from women's rights activists, and to Israel to study law, politics, and history with Israeli legal scholar Gad Barzilai. She also spent much of her time interning at the Society of Counsel Representing Accused Persons, where she represented clients in the felony division and sat second chair in several jury trials. Janay also represented indigent immigrant victims of domestic violence in U-Visa cases via the Immigrant Family Advocacy Project in conjunction with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.

After graduating from law school, Janay took a position as an Assistant Professor in Haramaya, Ethiopia atHaramaya University School of Law, teaching Trial Advocacy, Evidence Law, and Negotiations to hundreds of Ethiopian second-year law students. While in Ethiopia, Janay also researched the land use conflicts of the indigenous tribes of eastern Ethiopia in conjunction with the Rural Development Institute Landesa.

Upon returning to the United States in 2011, Janay worked as a pro bono attorney at MADRE, conducting research for publications on global gender dimensions of violence against women and global women's health issues and drafting memoranda of law to Special Rapporteurs. While at MADRE, Janay also participated in the Commission on the Status of Women meetings, and represented MADRE at the United Nations Human Rights Committee Meetings with the Centre for Civil and Political Rights. In addition, Janay acted as a Legal Consultant by drafting memoranda of understanding between NGO Partnerships and 10x10, a social action campaign and the feature film Girl Rising, which advocates for girls education in the developing world. as a pro bono attorney for Immigration Equality, Janay represented primarily LGBT French-speaking foreign nationals in asylum proceedings. She founded the Janay Farmer Law Group in 2014. Most recently, at the HIV Law Project at Housing works, Janay provided direct immigration and public benefits representation to Low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS, including women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and the homeless.. Janay now maintains an immigration practice in both New York, New York and Seattle, Washington while representing French-speaking asylees Pro Bono for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, .

ADMISSIONS:

New York State Bar, 2011Eastern District of New York, 2016Washington State Bar, admission Pending

AFFILIATIONS:

New York City Bar Association

American Immigration Lawyers Association

AILA New York Chapter

AILA WASHINGONG CHAPTER

SOCIAL MEDIA:

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